Children’s Neighborhoods: Places of Play or Spaces of Fear?

Abstract

Backyards, streets, and public spaces such as parks and playgrounds have traditionally been the play arenas of an urban childhood – the neighborhood spaces in which children seek out each other to play, explore, and socialize. While neighborhoods continue to be important sites in children’s lives, in many developed countries, the freedoms that afforded children to roam unsupervised by an adult have contracted over recent decades. Heightened concerns for children’s safety, especially fears relating to traffic and strangers, have triggered major shifts in parenting practices. Where children once walked and cycled to school, they are now more likely to be chauffeured by parents in cars, and, for many children, outdoor play has become an adult-dependent activity. This chapter looks at why outdoor play and other forms of independent mobility are important for children’s well-being and discusses possible explanations for their decline. It also reports on children’s use and experiences of diverse urban neighborhood environments, and parenting practices around children’s mobility, drawing on data from Kids in the City, a research project conducted between 2010 and 2014 in Auckland, New Zealand.